| Contrarian proposition here: The idea that only sociopaths succeed is an artefact of what we observe. And what we observe is driven by which narratives get turned into stories about business success, into hagiographies about politicians and businesspeople, and into folklore. Everyone wants to talk about what a horrible person Steve Jobs was, nobody wants to talk about any of the tens of thousands of multi-millionaires who are running decent businesses, and who may not be saintly figures, but they aren't asking new hires to sign away their right to a bathroom break, either. There's a really fantastic book I recommend everyone read about success, it was popular a couple of decades ago: The Millionaire Next Door: http://www.thomasjstanley.com It was recommended to me by a man who was a centi-millionaire at the time. He owned one car, a Volvo Estate, and his partner would drive him to the commuter train to his office in a building he owned and where he could easily have as many parking spaces as he wanted. He was driven and very successful. I asked him if the money changed anything. He told me: "Yes. We used to drive to [Grateful] Dead concerts and camp. Now we can afford to fly, and even take our friends." The message of the book is that the reality of moderately wealthy people and business owners is very, very different from what sells copies of business magazines. I believe that very strongly to this exact day. Also, I work for a CEO is is not a complete sociopath, so I'm up to n=2 for my experience. |
He once stopped by my small apartment to pick up a document I wrote for a pitch or financing or something. He looked around at my furnishings, and said:
"This reminds me of the apartment we had in Montréal when we were still in university. We had some good times there."
Very much not a sociopath. Yet very successful.